Aug 30, 2015

College affordability has recently become the preeminent issue in higher education, as student debt figures have hit staggering levels.

A number of prominent Democrats have decried the excessive cost of college, and Hillary Clinton even proposed making college as “debt free as possible.”

But of all the Democrats calling for debt-free college — including US Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley — only Bernie Sanders has laid out a detailed plan that explains how he will finance the legislation, Inside Higher Ed reported on Friday.

Sanders will finance his plan by imposing a “Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street,” according to Inside Higher Ed.

In May, Sanders held a press conference in Washington where he called the US government irresponsible for allowing students to incur massive levels of debt to pay for college.

“It is unacceptable that in many instances interest rates on student loans are two to three times higher than interest rates on auto loans,” he told an audience that included student groups and a nurses union.

Sanders unveiled his ambitious College For All Act, which would provide free tuition at all public colleges and universities in the country.

He didn’t mince words over the substantial cost that such legislation would require, estimating that it would cost $750 billion over the next 10 years. And he jumped into how he would finance the plan, striking out at the investment industry while doing so.

“At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, at a time when trillions of dollars in wealth have been shifted from the middle class and working families of this country to the top one-tenth of one percent, at a time when the wealthiest people in this country have made huge amounts of money from risky derivative transactions and the soaring value of the stock market, this legislation would impose a speculation fee on Wall Street investment houses and hedge funds,” he said.

His proposed legislation and tone surrounding Wall Street is certainly not surprising given that Sanders is a self-described socialist. …

Of course, Sanders hasn’t mentioned that the reason why auto loan rates are lower than student loan rates is because of something called collateral. A car can be re-possessed if you fail to make your payments. But if you fail to pay off your student loans, it’s not like anyone can re-possess your brain.

Interest rates are higher when it comes to student loans, then, because there is greater risk involved.

If Sanders gets his way, and rates are forcefully lowered to the level of auto loans, then fewer people will be approved. Under this scenario, higher education will become the exclusive domain of the rich and the elite – i.e. the very people Sanders and his supporters claim to despise so much.